The Home Assistant companion app updated over night last night. When I opened it, I received a message about the remote connecting security level. I wasn’t fully awake, so I didn’t look into it to see what it was changing but onstage just thought “sure, more secure is better than less secure.” And I set it to “more secure”. When I got to work,I realized that automatons that trigger when I get to work weren’t functioning. I opened the app and it refused to load. Like the setting is, in fact, supposed to do.
I connect to Home Assistant through tailscale when I’m not at home.
My first and most urgent question is there a trick to switching back to less secure? I went to the companion app settings, chose my server, and perf the remote connecting security level menu. I selected less secure, and hit save. It is still set to most secure. I’ve tried it several times, as the setting never shows as changed, and I still cannot access Home Assistant if I turn my Wi-Fi off. Is this a bug of the app? I’ve closed the app, and reopened it between attempts to change it. I’ve tried searching the forum here and reddit for others having the same issue, but couldn’t find anything.
My second question is, since I’m connecting through a VPN, shouldn’t it be at least as secure as connecting on my local network?
Same problem here, all my family phones are off-line and I can no longer track my children - no warning about this change!
The app updates, disconnects if you’re using http and then won’t reconnect without additional configuration. People aren’t even at home, so this isn’t possible right now.
Additionally, on my own device, I am unable to save the “less secure” option.
I go into security settings, click “Less secure” click Save,but it still shows blocked. The “Most Secure” setting remains and it is impossible to change.
It really is, who tested this? Just doesn’t work at all.
I’ve lost many hours this morning setting up SSL on my home assistant instance, which is great, I’m all secure woo! But my family devices are never going to reconnect until they get home and I can reconfigure them. In the meantime, I have no idea where my children are as I’m getting zero automation triggers.
Same here on my Android device. On my wife’s Iphone i was able to put it back on less secure but mine is now completely unusable.
Hope to get a sollution soon!
The worst part is that, if you’re running the app in the background, for location or NFC services, it will stop working without warning until you make manual fixes.
A short summary of the discussion in the GitHub issue:
The issue where “Less secure” option can’t be selected after “Most secure” has been selected has been fixed and a new release is waiting for Google’s approval (it’s going to take few days).
However, the goal of the connection security level setting is to help make the connection more secure by default. If you’re already always secure, nothing happens.
If you have an unencrypted connection set in the app, the choice is shown to make you aware of it. You shouldn’t feel the need to change to “Less secure” - you likely need to check your home network settings in the app to make sure it is set up correctly. For more information, see the documentation.
Check whether you’re using HTTPS for remote access.
Using a VPN to access your home network when away from home? Set “VPN connected” as your home network in the app settings.
Hello,
I’m at home and can’t use the app at all, regardless of whether I set it to secure or insecure. I can’t get out of the screen. Do I now have to wait days until it works again?
Temporary fix for this on Andriod is to sign up for the Beta for Home Assistant on the Play Store and update the app to the most recent Beta version. Once on the beta version you can change the setting to less secure.
I have a question: we use an https connection with a host and domain that only exist on our home LAN. There’s no such thing on the public network. Our phones are always connected to the home LAN via Wireguard and connect to a fake public address: https://homeassistant.our-domain.com.
We’re currently using the low security setting and have the same address entered for both internal and external. Is this configuration still supported by the companion app after the last update?
Yes it is ! You just need to make sure that I the settings of the companion (‘Home Network’) app you check VPN. By doing so it ensure that the app won’t try to call your server when you are not on VPN which avoid leaking information when using unencrypted connection.
Going with the Less secure option should be temporary until you review your configuration, to ensure the safety or your data.
Hello,
I also run into the same issue with the recent app update. I used to be able to access HA remotely using Tailscale.
I went through a long rabbithole trying to setup duckdns.org, but hit a wall due to my ISP not currently giving me a Public IPv4 (if I understand correctly).
Is the plan to eventually allow tailscale connection for remote access via the companion app? Or should I continue trying to get a port forwarding through my router and ISP?
Thank you
